Handling Time Delay of Sensor Data Processing in a Model based Remote Operation Environment

Keywords

Abstract

Many of today’s inspection systems for underground sewer
pipes consist of a single TV-Camera on an operator con
trolled vehicle [1]. The live-video of this camera is the pri
mary tool for teleoperation and damage assessment. Recent
developments in the ﬁeld have lead to systems with more
advanced sensors as well as a greater degree of autonomy.
While human involvement in teleoperation is still neces
sary, the operator interface has to meet different challenges
compared to conventional systems.
Here we present an augmented virtual environment
that can be used by the operator for supervisory control
of our semi-autonomous inspection system for large under
ground sewer pipes under operating conditions. At runtime
the virtual environment is constructed using results from a
number of data-processing modules that are unable to de
liver their output in time for live-display. To overcome this
problem we introduce the use of spatially arranged time do
mains. We then show in detail how this technique is applied
to achieve an overall consistent visualization.